The Women of Troy by Pat Barker

 

Series: Women of Troy (#2)

304 pages, Hardcover

August 24, 2021 by Doubleday

Historical fiction

Library

I am behind on reviews!

I liked book 1 better. There you really saw the horror that is war, no, we did not see the actual war, but what happen to civilians, and mostly women then.

But this was after Troy had fallen, and the "heroes" can't sail away. That is child murdering, slave making rapists who should all have their parts cut off. F them all. Evil Greek heroes should burn in the pit of Hades. They lament why they can't sail away, oh maybe it is because you threw babies down walls and raped every women you saw.

So this one is slower. Briseis who is pregnant and no longer a slave wanders around the camp and meets the other women held in sexual slavery. We also see hear the part of Pyrrhus who seems like a real incel.

A good book, but not as thought provoking as book one. For now we already know the Greek heroes are raping assholes.

Troy has fallen. The Greeks have won their bitter war. They can return home as victors - all they need is a good wind to lift their sails. But the wind has vanished, the seas becalmed by vengeful gods, and so the warriors remain in limbo - camped in the shadow of the city they destroyed, kept company by the women they stole from it.

The women of Troy.

Helen - poor Helen. All that beauty, all that grace - and she was just a mouldy old bone for feral dogs to fight over.

Cassandra, who has learned not to be too attached to her own prophecies. They have only ever been believed when she can get a man to deliver them.

Stubborn Amina, with her gaze still fixed on the ruined towers of Troy, determined to avenge the slaughter of her king.

Hecuba, howling and clawing her cheeks on the silent shore, as if she could make her cries heard in the gloomy halls of Hades. As if she could wake the dead.

And Briseis, carrying her future in her womb: the unborn child of the dead hero Achilles. Once again caught up in the disputes of violent men. Once again faced with the chance to shape history.